Every time I go to the cinema, someone makes a smart-ass comment about the price of concessions. As if no one has ever made the statement that movie theater food is expensive before, they chime in with hilarious indignation. I'm quick to explain to them why theaters have to do this.
Here's something you probably didn't know about the cinema: they almost invariably don't see a penny of that ten dollar ticket you just bought. All of it goes to the film distributor.
Think about the implications of that for a minute. This means that the only way for a movie theater to actually make money, and stay in business, is to sell something else. This is why theaters sell concessions. It's not that they want to sell you crunchy snacks that make entire lines of the movie inaudible to you and everyone around you; it's a thing of necessity. Running gigantic movie screens in a colosseum-sized building from noon to midnight every day costs enough as it is, but the theater company doesn't even have ticket sales to help them out.
You might be asking, "Why are those concessions so high-priced?" The reason for this is that a lot of people go see a movie and don't buy any concessions at all. They're essentially using the theater for free, at least from the business standpoint of the cinema itself. In order to make up for all the people who don't buy concessions, concessions have to be expensive. Theaters would go out of business if they only charged a dollar or two for popcorn because it's simply not enough money to make ends meet.
You also might be asking, "Why popcorn?" Well, popcorn has a lot of salt in it, which will make you thirsty and want to buy a drink. Call it a cheap trick if you want, but when you buy a popcorn and a soda at the theater, you're helping them stay in business, thus enabling you to see movies in the future. That's what you'd like to happen, right?
So. Next time you go to the theater with some candy and a drink from home tucked away in your bag, think twice. They didn't make money off that ticket you purchased. It might put a dent in your wallet to buy concessions, but you're helping to ensure the future of the cinema.
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2 comments:
So, in the end, you're basically saying that the cinemas aren't making any money for the tickets, only the concessions. If that's the case, they're basically running a popcorn stand disguised as a theater.
They're in the wrong business, apparently. Indirect profits kind of defeat the purpose. They could've opened a damn restaurant. I mean, sure, people want to see movies and if these places didn't exist it'd suck for us, yada yada yada...but there has to be some other type of income. I'm sure that somehow or another they get paid in other ways, otherwise they'd simply be running a business that is useless just so that they can make some cash selling candy bars. I can get candy bars at the convenient store.
While it is true that a small minority of theaters receive some of the profits of ticket sales, it's not nearly enough to keep the theater open. You can claim that there's some other major source of income for theaters, but as someone who worked in one and was privy to information about the industry as a whole, I was made aware that concession sales make up either the main or the only income source for the movie theater.
Theater companies aren't in the wrong business. They recognize the public's desire to see films, and have figured out a way to do so despite not receiving a significant portion, or any in most cases, of the ticket sale profits.
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